You may know Alana from her blog Eating from the Ground Up (writers will want to read this post in particular). Perhaps you've waved to her from the Pike on your way through the Berkshires. But if you don't know her, it's about time you do. Her cookbook is simply delightful with charming stories about her family and the role food plays in making her home a happy place. Her recipes are imbued with a near-childlike excitement, and that enthusiasm is contagious. Am I really going to make homemade yogurt instead of buying it at the store? No. But maybe! She sounds so damn excited about it!

Included are recipes for homemade butter, ricotta, and mozzarella, as well as toaster pastries, pizza, macaroni and cheese, whole wheat bread, lasagna, graham crackers, and pesto: so many things that come up in the family snack or meal-time rotation. I have her cornbread and granola earmarked, but I'm also really interested in trying out her recipes for coffee liqueur and amaretto. Instead of throwing out your spent vanilla beans, she suggests rinsing them well and storing them in a little bottle with some cheap vodka to make your own vanilla extract. The book is a genuine, down-to-earth collection of some simple ideas for things you can make at home that might be worth the effort and save you money.

Clarkson Potter is offering one copy up for raffle. To enter, comment below by Monday, July 2 at 10 p.m. EST about the one thing in your pantry or fridge that you'll never, ever make yourself, no matter how easy it is. I'll start. I will never, ever make my own hot dog buns. Eff that. By the time I get to hot dogs, I've already given up. I don't care how good your recipe is, I'd rather eat the hot dog and its ample condiments out of my cupped hands than bake a hot dog bun. There, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Now you go.

(And, no, you will not be disqualified if you happen to mention something that's in the book. There are still 100 other recipes, after all!)

Comments

I've made it before but unless there are a bunch of people coming over to finish it all up I see no point in making Mayonnaise. It always goes bad before we get through it all when we make it ourselves. The wastefulness bothers me more than just buying a dam jar.

I *love* home made corn tortillas--they are the best! But the two times I've tried to make them by hand I ended up throwing a tantrum in the kitchen (and nearly threw the effing tortilla press out the window). I can never get the darn things to peel off of the waxed paper. I give up! I have vowed never to make another attempt.

Potato chips. Rarely are they eaten in our household, and usually it's after a BBQ when there's a half-eaten bag open. But last Christmas, my in-laws all gifted one another a very fancy little plastic device designed to help you slice a fresh potato and then microwave "healthier" potato chips. An absolute sham, if you ask me. Luckily I was somehow spared the snack food blasphemy and didn't receive one!

Marshmallow's. People wax poetically about HOW easy they are to make, HOW much better they are than the bagged kind. But honestly, I don't care. I don't even like marshmallow's that much. Certainly not enough to make them from scratch.

Oohh, marshmallows are better! I make them all the time. I make a lot of stuff, but if there was a recipe for those Little Debbie Nutty Bars in the book, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. 1) They're so easy to buy and 2) they're way too easy to eat. So, in order to make them in quantities that would be worth the effort I would then have to EAT them. That ain't happening.

Lately, I've been thinking about the mayo and the ranch dressing - although the packet might be a nice compromise on that one.

My tolerance for wasting time making something myself that I could buy just as easily is really, really high. I've made ketchup, preserves, pickles, vinegar, marshmallows, cheese (not aged), mayonnaise. And beer, corned beef, pickled tongue. I haven't ground my own flour, but I could see myself doing it in some sort of Little House on the Prairie fever dream.

So I'm going with soda. I'm never going to bottle my own root beer. I don't want to put that much work into something that's that bad for me, and I want soda so rarely, I'll just buy a fancypants root beer if I get the urge.

I think I'll have to agree on several of the above listed items, but probably mostly with the hot dog rolls. Hot dogs are supposed to be my crap-I-didn't-defrost-anything-for-dinner-pull-the-hot-dogs-and-buns-out-of-the-freezer-because-they-only-take-2-minutes-longer-when-starting-from-frozen-and-open-a-can-of-beans-while-you're-at-it last minute attempt at making something at home instead of ordering in. But rolls from scratch? There had better be something a heck of a lot better than a hot dog inside that sucker!

Definitely will never make my own mayonnaise or ketchup. Kind of like you said about the hot dog buns... if my meal involves putting mayo or ketchup on top, I'm obviously already taking the fastest way out!

I'm with you on the hot dog buns. I've had beans to make my own vanilla extract FOREVER, but still haven't gotten around to it. And right now, I still don't have the space/time to make ketchup or preserves ...

Puff pastry is one of those food that it's best to buy, because the amount of butter you have to put in it will make you weak in the arteries. Also, it takes for-freaking-ever, and is just too finicky and labor intensive.

I don't know if there is something I ABSOLUTELY won't make if I had a recipe that is easy enough. There are things I won't make because of what is in them. I have had a homemade marshmallow. I was unimpressed. It was a restaurant, and it was cold and gooey. Neither of those sensations belong on a marshmallow. So I might draw the line there. In the event I need any, it is MUCH easier to buy them, made and ready to stuff between a graham cracker and a slab of chocolate.

I was feeling like there's nothing I won't try once, but, seriously, I also feel no need to make my own ketchup or mayo. And to be perfectly honest, flour or puff pastry. I know these have all been said before, but it's true. Oh! and phyllo, and lemonade.

This is so cool to see what people are making from scratch (and not making).

The first thing that came to mind for me was Pad Thai. I tried it once and it was a disaster (although I ate the burnt, overcooked noodles anyway) and wanted to say I won't make it again, but as I was typing it here, I realize I might have to try one more time.

Then I thought... I don't own a pasta machine and wouldn't make that. However, imagining the taste of homemade pasta changed my mind on that one.

So while racking my brain, I looked around and saw Peppermint Patties. The York ones are perfect for that once-in-awhile craving.

I have never made ravioli. Though I am inspired after the demo of lobster ravioli by the chef/owner of Tuscan Restaurant (Salem NH). Looks amazing and tastes even better. I always doubt I can make it at home and have it taste as good as theirs.

Grenadine syrup. I just looked at the ingredients recently and was shocked. I thought a second about making my own, but now we buy the organic stuff, and there are just good ingredients in it. So why make it myself? It would be much more expensive and a whole mess.

Well, I've got to tell you, I'm pretty culinarily adventuresome. Once I get excited to make something, if I have the tools, or can afford the tools, and the ingredients, I'll usually take a stab at it. So there're very, very few things I would •never• make.

But… I have a friend who lives in Minnesota. He makes maple syrup each year, and I get mine from him. I'm thinking that, to make maple syrup, I'd have to live in some godforsaken, cold, Northern wilderness, with extremely cold winters.

Those Pop Tarts on the cover. They're a nostalgia eat. I wasn't allowed except on rare occasion. They are like Real Housewives - I'd no more eat a homemade pop tart than I'd sit down and watch a television show about the real housewives in my neighborhood. I want the one that's bad for me, full of attractive, fake ingredients. Also, there's something very satisfying about tearing open the foil wrapper.

I don't see myself ever making butter. I love to bake with it too much, and if I actually made it myself, I would feel way too parsimonious about its use. No, I will not be churning butter anytime soon.

oil. i have absolutely no desire to press oil out of the things that contain it: olives, coconuts, peanuts, grape seeds. perhaps this is my utter ignorance of the oil-making process rearing its head, but it seems like a messy, messy and incredibly labor intensive process requiring heavy machinery. i confess that i would really much rather purchase my fats.